Anthropological study on the relationship between Hmong refugees and the state

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K03297
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Cultural anthropology
• Research Institution: National Museum of Ethnology (2021-2023); Rikkyo University (2017-2020)
• Principal Investigator: Nakagawa Osamu 国立民族学博物館, グローバル現象研究部, 准教授 (30402986)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: グローバリゼーション / 主権 / 難民 / 平等性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Through ethnographic research, this study revealed that the Hmong, an ethnic minority who migrated to France as refugees from Laos, have realized a way of life not governed by anyone that they consider “Hmong-like”, through their agricultural practices in the south of France. However, it is important to note that movements that criticize this “ideal of independence” and attempt to create a hierarchical structure repeatedly appear, and that the “ideal of independence” is only possible through the use of women and nature as resources. The study also showed that when the “ideal of independence” is undermined by increased state control, Hmong farmers attempt to re-migrate using translocal kin relationship, in search of new possibilities of autonomy.

Free Research Field

文化人類学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

自由と独立を志向するモンの動態を多面的な民族誌によって解明するとともに、より広い国家・主権・統治に関する理論的枠組みにこの民族誌を位置付けたことが、本研究の学術的成果である。本研究が成果として提示した「部分的アナキズム」や「平等主義とヒエラルキーの揺れ動き」といった概念は、国家の主権のあり方を現実に即してより精緻に考えることを可能にするものである。これらの概念は、そして本研究が明らかにしたモンの生き方は、現代社会における自律的な生き方について、新たな視点から構想する基盤となるといえる。